A few posts recently about our problems and as I read I become more and more concerned as there are some very accurate points and comments being made by many of us. We still have a few blindly (no offence intended) positive posters but it’s clear to see, regardless of points advantages from this time last season, and how early it is in the season to judge etc, that there is a decline.

It occurred to me earlier that there is another very simple but problem we have when other teams play against us. The pyschological advantage the opposition have.

We have, not intentionally of course, put ourselves in a position now whereby we are seen as arguably THE team to pick points up against home/away. Maybe extreme to say THE team but we’re certainly in the same basket as Palace and Sunderland. I really think we are one of the three teams just mentioned who the other teams consider be the most beatable. Teams come to Villa Park and think they can win, right off the bat, without kicking a ball, they immediately start on the front foot, play harder, more aggressively and simply play better due to the confidence and belief they have that they can beat us. Teams like Cardiff, Palace and Sunderland and Norwich and Fulham to name a few are worse than us in my opinion but when we play these teams we’re all of a sudden playing an improved version because of our worry to lose and their confidence to win. It’ s a terrible situation and very difficult to remedy.

The otherside to this let’s not forget is the pyscological disadvantage our own lads are up against. After every loss (especially the losses we played well in and should have won) our lads are losing their confidence. The theory that you can pick yourself up easily after a loss when you play well is bullshit, I play (albeit at the lowest level possible) and a loss when you’ve played well is a toughy to take and the next week is difficult to go again in worry that the same thing is going to happen again. Imagine getting beaten week in week out in your own back garden…I wouldn’t want to get out of bed and have to lace my boots up. And added to all this are us the fans, we all feed off this which then bounces back onto the players, it’s a vicious cycle. Regardless of how we feel about things, especially behind the scenes we need to stay behind the lads when they’re on the field playing, they need that 11th man.

We need to get back to basics, the one good point so far this season and the clear improvement and positive change is the defence. It’s looked good, a lot tighter and notably I’m very impressed with Vlaar’s turn of form (that’ll be the deal breaker for oohah posting this up lol)

A solid defence, plus the fact we have a quality goaly are the first building blocks when building a strong team (arguably). So we need to look at that as our stand alone positive this season and build on that, start from scratch in a way. Change up the midfield, it’s so blatantly clear to all the fans that it’s not working, so bloody change it up a bit, please please please Lambert change up our midfield, don’t send Albrighton on loan, how about play him instead, he’s a winger who needs to find form. Drop a horribly out of sorts Weimann for a couple of games and let him get his head together. Give Tonev more time on the left. Switch to a 442 with good old wing play. We have quality and proven PL goalscorers in Gabby and CB and all they need is delivery of any kind to find the net. They’re not getting that delivery at the moment.

If we can change something up and we have to change something-I’m not talking managerial as I’m prepared to give Lambert more time-then we can start to overturn this psychological disadvantage and our fortunes in general. Catch a team off guard who think we’ll be a rollover and come out to play 433/451 counter attack. Keep the opposition on their toes, keep them thinking and most imrpotantly improve our own confidence when our lads see that teams look wary to play us.

13 Comments

“Regardless of how we feel about things, especially behind the scenes we need to stay behind the lads when they’re on the field playing, they need that 11th man.”

this bit made me laugh, i do agree with most of what you say here, but i cant agree to stand behind the players when they need to be made aware of our feelings.

The everton game was great, the holte was singing loud for all to hear and then they scored, after the second goal the fans still sang, until everyone in the ground relised the players had given up, now be it down to lambert or not, the players just sat back, youd think we were winning 2-0, 80th minute they passed us off the park, won a corner and WE put 11 men in OUR box, WHY? how can we then counter or even get out our own half when the minute we clear it its straight back in. It became a farse towards the end of that game, and a strong villa team that looked good became weak and frail, thus leaving the fans frustrated, wondering where the hell had all the fight gone?
in my eyes 2-0 or 10-0 its still a loss, and unless lambert thinks we can stay up on goal difference its just not good enough, you give it your all 100% all game and not 90% of it, and then us as fans have no right to moan, otherwise bellow away as they dont deserve the support if they havnt earnt it

Well said Andrew111 unlike the other Andrew you can actually see what’s really going on. It’s very simple the players and manager are not good enough. We have Benteke and Guzan who are quality the rest are what they are a rag tag bunch of players who try hard but the quality is simply not there. On top of that they have a clueless manager who’s about as tactically astute as a water melon!

Andrew they call that complacency, ive said in other posts our players cannot see things going right, forwards seeing defenders making mistakes, defenders seeing strikers making mistakes, you and me see problems on the pitch and we are not happy, four years now same thing going nowhere, I thank the holte enders for still backing the team, I’ve lost patience now , and have the right to walk away after spending £1000’s at the club, I really now think that Lambert lost his way with the players and being able to make us great again.

Mark very good post mate yes we are still behind the team but change needs to come and sooner rather than later.As Bill as rightly said four years now and little or no improvement are we four years into the Lerner five year plan it;s not working.People will walk away in these times of austerity nobody is going to keep spending money to watch a team fail time and time again it;s like flogging a bloody dead horse.We need to see improvement and if that means change of management and coaching staff then so be it.

Mark great post – I think we have an owner and CEO with little football experience, which has been shown with Management appointments and O’Neil being allowed to spend what he likes on who he likes….. Been saying for ages we need an experienced Director of Football to do something and connect the board with the playing side of the CLub

I know yeh Man City came thinking that to.I don’t think teams come to Villa Park and think that at all.I think we have flaws in certain areas and that is sometimes exploited.We are only 9 games in there’s still 29 games to go.This is all to judgemental for me.I think with Benteke back we will certainly start scoring again.I still think we will finish mid table and that will be an improvement on last season.We are nowhere near European football or trophy winning yet…..Jump off the players and managers back all this moaning is a waste of time…..UTV

Why not go 3 1 4 2 at home change it up a bit back 3 of Baker Clarke vlarr midfield of styiia delpth Westwood tonv gabby then benteke weineman up front and start bashing teams the midfield would be full up which is villa problem not enough in there to stop teams attacking if you got all of them in there can you’ve always got someone to break up play any thoughts

I really don’t think people understand what PL has had to do, he’s had to rebuild a squad not a team. He’s spent £50m over the last 2 seasons to bring in around 14 players, yes he’s gambled, every signing is a gamble to a certain degree. I think now he has a squad he can start to add more quality which we all know is what is needed.

If stay positive, stay behind the cause then we will be ok this season and may even shock a few.
UTV

my biggest concern Saturday was how heads went down after the goal, admittedly mine did too, we’d been the better side imo and if anyone was going to go on and win it you’d have fancied villa to do it, I travelled down to the game from up north with 2 evetonians, match talk on the way home said they would have been happy with a point up until their goal.
I was so disapointing but the 2nd goal should never have happened, it was very poor, way, way to easy and yes it did look like the players had give up, couldn’t wait to get off the pitch.
35 thou again at villa, fans will only put up with it for so long, Saturday was unfortunate, we didn’t play badly at all.
the next six games for me are very winnable, id be looking to take 9/10 pts from these, anything significantly less will be extremely concerning.

Its hard to know what is the psychological predisposition of one person let alone a team.
I suppose we can’t rule out the scenario that you describe MD8 .. but we also can’t rule out that is more of a fan projection more than anything else.

We don’t have the managers/ coaches instructions, conversations rebukes and day to day training and performances at those training sessions with the rest of the squad to affect our mindset before a game. We only have the previous game .. a 90 minute condensed window to view the players and try and interpret their psychological disposition before a game.

Where as i understand where you are coming from considering you play rec footy (as do i) I feel you are projecting again. I have entered a team in 7 aside leagues for the last 5/6 years now all year round. I have witnessed ruts, bad form, drubbings and impressive wins.
some players come back from a bad defeat as if nothing ever happened. some get sucked into it and need a pick me up or good result or a goal or two to shake it from their heads.
I feel like perhaps you are using your own personal experience to colour your perception of the villa players mindsets.
thats ok too, ultimately we can’t rule it out! there are probably players on that squad that could be very similar to how your own mind works.
And no one can ignore that if a team goes on a losing streak the team mentality is affected. confidence does wane. but where is i am disappointed with the result against Everton and the result and performance against spurs .. we haven’t lost all our games this season and all the players need to do is look at the table and the teams they have played and there is enough there to allow belief to flourish.

As for other teams coming with the mindset that they can win at villa park.
well I don’t doubt that anyone coming to villa park feels like they have more than a chance but form is important. – one win and the next team that comes there will look at that and factor it in to their approach.
either way .. Teams that come expecting an easier win is not necessarily a bad thing for Villa.
its also something we can’t really control.

Fair play Colonius, it does look like I’m projecting a little bit and personal experience definitely played a part in my writing. I think to be a bit more precise I was getting at a ‘group’ decline rather than an individual, the team, the manager, the backroom staff and the fans. e.g I was desperately dissapointed when Everton scored after the chances we had missed and you could feel the atmosphere instantly sucked out of the ground (from watching on TV) so being there must have felt even worse. All of these factors play a small part in the whole outcome. If one individual is declining in confidence a lot of the time this will rub off on the other lads, even worse so when considering the age of the group. Vlaar and Guzan? Maybe these are the only two can keep a more mature mindset and not let it affect them but as for the others none of them are experienced enough to cope week in week out (I’m presuming again I know lol).

Which leads onto the Barry point, I could write a book on how we could have benfited from Barry on Loan, but I’ll leave it there.

However, you are right, I can only paint this picture from 90 minute segments each saturday and I can’t possibly know how they feel as a group or individually, It’s just an observation. UTV

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